NATIONAL SCOPING PROJECT...

Questions and Answers:

1. What is your idea of what a national peak mental health consumer
organisation should do?
connect consumers throughout Australia with resources which enrich their lives
2. How would a national peak mental health consumer organisation be different
from other mental health consumer organisations?
it would encompass the whole person in a “one stop shop”
3. What do you or your organisation want from a new peak organisation?
relevant communication on how to individually achieve health and well being, mind, body and
soul.
4. What do you think have been the major lessons learned by mental health
consumer organisations in Australia in recent years?
a lot of blood, sweat and tears has gone into mental health reform already since such things as
the Burdekin Report of the early 1990s. I think sometimes we need to reflect and consider just
where we have been before we can consider where we are now heading. Lesson I have learnt:
continuity with peers, education and resources funding gives reassurance, identity, security and
permanency for the person on their journey and within the community.
5. What do you consider to be the strengths and resources of the Australian
mental health consumer movement?
It’s people and their scope for creating and imagining
6. In your view, what are the major challenges and difficulties confronting the
establishment of a new peak organisation?
enlightening and involving all and sundry through communication
7. What are your ideas about what the new organisation should be like – how
would you like it to walk, talk and feel? eg:
*what should its principles and values be?
*Who should be its membership?
*How might it be structured?
*How should it be governed?
*How would it be accountable to its members?
*How would it communicate with its members and vice versa?
*How would it work with other mental health consumer organisations as well
as other organisations?
“walk tall, walk straight and look the world right in the eye...”
8. What are your ideas and suggestions about possible organisational models for
the new peak body?
informal, but structured...else chaos may reign. Person Centred, Recovery, Biopsychosocial??
9. Once the new peak organisation is established and gets to work, in your
view, what should be its priorities?
enabling itself to listen, respond and grow
10. Are there any other BIG questions you think we should be asking?

no but,...Many thanks for initiating hope! Heather Binns 10 September 2009